Festival Preview: Slam Dunk 2017

Five years ago, if you’d have asked most of us here at Metal Recusants whether we’d cover a festival like Slam Dunk, we’d tell you to dream on. However, as said festival continues to grow, incidentally so have we over the years. And yours truly isn’t always destined to cover death and black metal, so I have previewed a rundown of Slam Dunk, which has established itself as one of the country’s most versatile and highly anticipated festivals in the UK today.

Slam Dunk itself takes its name from a club night held at Leeds’ Cockpit music venue, which is where the festival originated back in 2006. At the eponymous debut festival, it was initially a one-day event held in the city’s Millennium Square, the event has now prospered and flourished to such a degree now that it has attracted bands such as Fall Out Boy, Reel Big Fish, Paramore, Cancer Bats, Architects, Gallows, Of Mice & Men and so much more.

Now we get the specifics of the festival itself:

Slam Dunk takes place across the Bank Holiday weekend of 27-29 May, and takes place at three separate venues and regions. On Saturday 27th, the festival takes place at the NEC in Birmingham in the Midlands. The day after, Sunday 28th May sees Slam Dunk take to the north of England in Leeds in the City Centre, on its home soil. Rounding off the weekend on Monday (for those readers who are abroad, this day is also like a Saturday at this time of year in the UK), the festival concludes at The University of Hertfordshire in Hatfield, which is just about 20 minutes from Kings Cross.

It’s the same lineup across all three dates, so as much of the UK can experience the festival as possible. And that lineup is mostly complete. Check out the full lineup listed below:

The lineup as expected is a mixture of pop punk, ska, rock and modern metal music, with such a plethora of offers on all eight stages, any attendee would find it difficult to find something that wasn’t fresh, exciting and innovative. Slam Dunk has notoriously proven hallowed ground, showcasing some phenomenal bands and musicians across a broad spectrum of scenes and genres.

There are an equal amount of stages at all three events, both indoor and outdoor, and all bands will play all three dates.

Can you find yourself in our #SDF16 round up video? We can't wait for #SDF17 and are happy to announce Enter Shikari will be headlining, tickets are now on-sale @ http://slamdunkmusic.com – See you next year!!

Doors for the event will be open from 1:00pm and the bands will finish by 11:00pm, with afterparties finishing at 3:00am (all are 18+ and require photo ID). All festival events are 14+.

This lineup looks as stacked as ever, and believe it or not, there are still acts to be announced. There are a bunch of acoustic artists and DJs due to be announced for the respective lineup afterparties, plus the Rock Sound competition winners who will open up the Rock Sound Breakout Stage.

Metal Recusants will provide an in-depth look at some of the bands playing the festival later this month, so stay tuned!

Dan (or Danuel as many know him) is the newest member of the editorial team of MetalRecusants, after being a contributing writer for a few years. He spends his days sending emails, editing, drinking coffee or listening to some form of Australian metal. He can usually be spotted wearing his Northlane windbreaker around the mean streets of Shoreditch.
Find him on Twitter: @DanuelKC - he tweets about sports a lot.